RBC Taylor Prize long list revealed

TORONTO – Non-fiction books about enduring love, solitude in the digital era, and life as an ER doctor are among the titles on the RBC Taylor Prize long list.

Contenders for the $30,000 award include James Maskalyk’s “Life on the Ground Floor: Letters From the Edge of Emergency Medicine” (Doubleday Canada), which recently won the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Also on the list is Mandy Len Catron’s “How to Fall in Love with Anyone” (Simon & Schuster), and Michael Harris’s “Solitude: A Singular Life in a Crowded World” (Doubleday Canada).

A short list will be revealed Jan. 10, 2018, while the winner will be announced on Feb. 26, 2018. Authors of the other shortlisted titles get $5,000 each.

Jurors read 153 books submitted by 110 Canadian and international publishers.

The other books on the long list are:

— “Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on Bering’s Great Voyage to Alaska” (Douglas & McIntyre) by Stephen R. Bown

— “Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place” (Wolsak and Wynn Publishers) by Daniel Coleman

— “The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo’s Scorpion Prison to Freedom” (Random House Canada) by Mohamed Fahmy and Carol Shaben

— “A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land” (Allen Lane Canada/Penguin Random House Canada) by Adam Shoalts

— “Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City” (House of Anansi Press) by Tanya Talaga

— “In the Name of Humanity” (Allen Lane Canada/Penguin Random House Canada) by Max Wallace

— “Apron Strings: Navigating Food and Family in France, Italy, and China” (Goose Lane Edition) by Jan Wong